Recreational fishing is one of the more popular leisure time activities enjoyed by sportsmen everywhere. Most commonly, recreational fishing is done with a fishing rod, line and a hook and some form of artificial or live bait. There is a wide variety of shapes and designs of fishing tackle available in the industry today. A good resource showing different types of fishing tackle can be found at www.cabelas.com and www.basspro.com. Recreational fishing has grown worldwide to become a multibillion dollar industry. In the United States alone, the fishing industry encompasses more than 30 billion dollars annually and employs over 300,000 people.
Although most styles of commercial artificial fishing lures are fairly easy to use, they provide almost no protection at all from snags or puncture wounds from their incredibly sharp points.
Every fisherman, when casting around waters filled with reeds, grasses, dead branches, etc., knows all too well how difficult it is to keep the hook points from snagging objects in, or out of the water. A great deal of time is wasted unhooking barbed points from grasses, limbs and anything else in the way. In addition, many fishermen have experienced firsthand the reality of puncture wounds and clothing tears either on themselves or to others. In fact, stab wounds are pretty common while handling and casting tackle with sharp hooks. A surprise prick on a finger can happen, on occasion, just by reaching into a tackle box. In addition, common artificial lures usually have either very small treble hooks dangling off of them or they have one or more fixed hooks sticking out. All have dangerous and exposed points that even a fish can sense quickly while investigating or striking the bait lure. This can decrease the opportunities for capture, as well. Some lures use two or more treble hooks that are usually somewhat smaller hooks than would normally be desired since larger treble hooks would overwhelm the lure and add weight. Most lure manufacturers use small treble hooks and a lure no longer than 17-20 cm long might have up to 2-3 sets of treble hooks hanging off of it just to ensure a fish is hooked. Handling these lures safely is always tricky and a challenge. Also, if you happen to catch a large sport fish on an undersized treble hook, it is much easier for a fish to jump back off of the hook. Sizing the hook properly for the lure and being free from snags and/or puncture wounds has been a difficult issue to solve for manufacturers of lures.
There have been a number of fishing tackle designs attempting to solve these safety and non-snagging issues. Many have tried to incorporate some type of motion hook device in the attempt. Unfortunately, almost all of these motion hooks employ the use of a cocked spring with a trigger mechanism in an effort to mobilize or snap hooks out to catch a fish. Few are truly practical. Plus, these spring hook designs are inherently risky to handle, especially for children and novices, and don't generally integrate or function well with a wide range of artificial lure shapes and sizes. Some are very complex and impractical due to weight, bulk and cost to produce. A person rarely, if not ever, sees a spring hook device on the shelf of any major sporting goods stores possibly due to liability concerns and the fear of accidentally firing the hook points out into someone's hand. The present invention overcomes the need to use springs or triggers to move hooks into, and out of a desired position. Spring hook devices are also illegal in some jurisdictions. Spring hooks and other designs to place hooks in motion have been disclosed in patents and other publications listed below.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,570,373 discloses a barbless fish hook containing a guard member formed of spring wire whereby the guard member may be deflected away from the point where the hook is set in a fish and thus prevents the fish from being dislodged from the hook. This particular hook is based on spring action, is cumbersome in design and is likely to be ineffective in operation or in retaining a fish.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,727,340 discloses a fish hook construction which is characterized by a first pair of like short hooks encompassed by a second pair of relatively long hooks and wherein said hooks are oriented and coordinated in a manner that both pairs of hooks are normally nested together and closed in a manner to render the structure effectively snag less. Hooks spring out to open when portions are grasped and squeezed by a fish. This is a spring actuated hook system and it is doubtful that it will work at all. Second, it probably won't work hidden inside a lure. The question that remains is how would a fisherman use it? It does not seem practical or useful.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,723,372 discloses a fish hook that has a flat barbless point which is specifically shaped to penetrate and remain embedded in the fish. This particular hook is not likely to enhance penetration into the flesh of a fish or prevent an active sport fish from dislodging or jumping off the hook.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,097,622 describes a barbless fish hook assembly incorporating a sleeve of material proximal to the barbless fish hook for setting the fish on the hook body. It is unlikely the presence of a sleeve material will provide sufficient resistance to secure the fish on the hook. Furthermore, the addition of a sleeve to the hook assembly would add unnecessary complexity and costs to the manufacturing process.
U.S. Patent Application 20030172579 discloses a barbless fishing hook with a shank having a longitudinal axis with a spike at one end and adjacent and proximal to the spike having a radially expanded surface extending outward from the longitudinal axis in the form of an protruding budge to presumably provide a surface on which the fish will adhere after engaging the hook. This hook design is unlikely to be an effective means of capturing a fish where the fish is retained successfully since the injury to the fish from this hook will provide an efficient path for the hook to dislodge from the fish.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,890,314 discloses a self-setting configuration for weed less fishing lures. This invention employs a spring biased dual hook assembly with an accompanying set of latch tabs permitting the two hooks to be cocked into a stable position inside the lure. The assembly is subject to automatic release by a tug on the fishing line by snapping the hooks into a stable position with hooks forced outside the lure into the fish's mouth. This is a spring triggered design that uses words like elastic wire to describe a spring. This lure might even trigger just by casting forces. This does not seem practical for actual use.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,574,908 B1 discloses a fishing lure with spring-loaded hooks. The fishing lure includes housing in which a pair of fishing hooks is enclosed. One end of each hook is secured to a spring-loaded plunger held in a hook retracted position by a trigger. The trigger is a spring plunger that is supposedly activated when a fish bites on the lure. When the trigger is activated, the plunger is released and the spring drives it forward. It suggests the hooks are driven into the fish's mouth with a sufficient force so that they cannot be dislodged by the movement of the fish. This sounds invention depends on where the hooks penetrate the fish in order to secure it. This seems a cumbersome and heavy spring action design that appears to be a hazard to anyone using it.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,868,632 B1 discloses a fishing lure comprising of at least one hook, a pivot pin about which the hook can pivot, a trigger which serves to engage the hook so when a fish takes the lure, the trigger is disengaged from the hook permitting them to extend outward and engage a fish. This design seems to be unusable. This is not a hook system that can be put into a variety of artificial lures nor can one use live bait with it. It does not appear to be a useful design.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,941,695 B2 discloses a fishing lure assembly having concealed retractable hooks. The fishing lure assembly has a latch in its interior to inhibit the movement of the hooks.
Pressure on the hook section can cause the latch to release the hooks to engage a fish. This is a spring hook system and it is not clear how it will work. This invention uses code words like “bias” to cover that fact that springs move the hooks into place. The trigger system also appears to be unsafe. Hooks that are opposite facing yet not over lapping will limit the lures and the hooks sizes that could be used. This spring device may not survive a hard cast by the fisherman.
U.S. Patent Application 20050252073 discloses a modified fish hook for catch and release applications wherein it is desired to inflict minimal damage to the fish and thus to release the fish in a healthy state after it has been caught. The hook comprises an eye, shank, bend point and one or more dogs located on the bend, shank or both of the hook. The dogs will comprise non barbed raised surfaces or structures. This invention is a barbless hook with non-barbed projections on its surface. This is intended to retain the caught fish on the hook until it can be safely removed and returned to the water. The fish, however, is unlikely to be retained on the hook. The raised surfaces, or dogs as they are referred to, seem wholly insufficient to hold and active jumping sport fish.
U.S. Patent Application number US 2007/0101634 A1 discloses a fishing lure assembly that is weed less because the hooks are retracted into a housing that prevents the assembly from snagging weeds and getting caught in debris. The assembly includes a fulcrum about which the hooks are spring-loaded. A trigger is rotatable and secured within the housing. When a fish moves the trigger, the hooks are released to catch the fish. It seems impractical for artificial lures and is a spring activated device. Also, grasses, branches, general handling and casting might move the trigger and set the hooks in motion.
U.S. Pat. No. 7,698,852 B1 discloses a fishing lure which has retractable hooks, and a spring portion mounted around a pin within the lure body. Each hook is retained in a cocked position. A forward pull on the rod releases the trigger to move forward freeing the coiled portion of the spring to unwind causing the hooks to be extended. This is another spring activated hook system that requires unique mechanisms that add cost, weight and throw a lure off balance. This trigger may, in fact, release the hooks during a hard or violent cast or just in general handling.
U.S. Pat. No. 8,020,337 B1 discloses an automatic setting of a fish hook assembly comprising 2 hooks pivotally secured to a common shaft, a coil spring installed on the shaft between the hooks, and a latch to hold the 2 hooks together. The latch is disengaged when a fish strikes the assembly, and the hooks are automatically set in the mouth of the fish. This does not seem to be useful or practical. It is not clear if this is for live bait or an artificial lure. In either case, it does not appear to be efficient for fishing and seems clunky and impractical.
U.S. Pat. No. 8,201,358 discloses a barbless hook equipped with a plurality of grooves formed beneath the hook tip, where the barb is generally provided, thus avoiding damage to a caught fish. The presence of grooves on a fish hook located beneath the barbless spear is unlikely to be efficacious to retaining the fish after it is hooked.
UK Patent Application GB 2501537 discloses a fishing lure with deployable hooks. The fishing lure allows the selective deployment of the hooks that are attached to an elongated central core, a hook anchor collar that is slidable and rotatable disposed on the central core, a spring and a hook guide. When the lure is bitten by the fish, the hooks are released by the action of the spring to deploy the distal ends of the hooks beyond the lure. This design uses expensive custom parts and a spring that add weight and complexity. It is not clear how this invention could work in a common lure. Spring lures generally cannot be casted so they become impractical for everyday fishing with a lure.